Boy, 15, Won't Be Charged With Assault In Police Chase

February 19, 1986|By Gina Thomas of The Sentinel Staff

ST. CLOUD — Orange-Osceola prosecutors say there is not enough evidence to file assault charges against a 15-year-old St. Cloud youth, whom police say nearly ran his truck into an officer during a chase last month.

The decision not to file charges in the Jan. 27 incident -- in which the officer fired a shot into the truck bed -- surprised St. Cloud Police Chief E.E. Eunice. He said no one from the prosecutor's office had notified him, and he wants a conference with them before the case is closed.

Eunice said prosecutors based their decision on a sheriff's report and that he thinks the St. Cloud department's internal investigation may provide more evidence.

''That state statute on aggravated assault can be interpreted in different ways,'' Eunice said Monday.

The internal report, finished two days after the incident, cleared Sgt. Ken Smith of any wrongdoing and he has returned to patrol duty. Eunice said Smith was correct to draw his weapon to protect himself against an unknown driver determined to get away.

''He had no idea who was in that truck,'' whether the driver was running from a serious crime, could have been armed or was emotionally unstable.

The chase Jan. 27 hit speeds of more than 100 mph, and, Smith said, at one point his patrol car was nearly run off the road.

Sheriff's Sgt. Mike Ryan, who investigated at the request of St. Cloud police, recommended no charges be filed because there was nothing to show the boy intended to use the truck as a weapon. Assistant State Attorney Neil Arther concurred.

The boy's father said he had no doubt of his son's innocence on the assault charge. ''What he's guilty of doing, he'll take responsibility for -- but nothing more.''

Smith went to the boy's home and retrieved the bullet from the truck and took photographs of the truck, the report states.

Eunice said Smith should not have obtained evidence himself. The reason he did so without his knowledge, Eunice said, was because Smith feared the bullet would fall out and be lost.